Saskatoon

No budget money for U of S Health Sciences building this year

A giant construction project at the University of Saskatchewan got some bad news today — there's no budget money this year for the Health Sciences building.

Last year, $7.9M budgeted for facility

Much work has been completed at the Health Sciences Building at the University of Saskatchewan, but the project is still under development. The provincial government supplied $7.9 million last year, but nothing this year. (University of Saskatchewan)

A giant construction project at the University of Saskatchewan got some bad news today — there's no budget money this year for the Health Sciences building.

The project, with costs expected to top $300 million, is already partially completed, but more upgrades are in the works.

Last year, the province gave $7.9 million to the project. This year, there's nothing. 

Money budgeted for post-secondary education is going down this year, from about $711 million to about $688 million, a three per cent dip.

Most of the drop is attributed to less money for capital projects.

Speaking to reporters about post-secondary funding, Finance Minister Kevin Doherty said the U of S has accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars of reserve funds and it has been raising tuition.

Provincial spending is squeezed this year thanks to lower-than-expected resource revenue. Doherty's budget, tabled June 1, called for a $434 million deficit. 

Corrections

  • An earlier version of this story referred to the post-secondary budget being about $648 million this year. In fact, it's about $688 million.
    Jun 02, 2016 5:38 AM CT